WASHINGTON, April 7 Kyodo (EDS: U...

WASHINGTON, April 7 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

across 100 U.S. armored vehicles penetrated shrewd into the center of Baghdad early Monday, taking direct of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's main presidential palace amid reports of a popular uprising in the capital.

Iraqis furnished little resistance, but later an Iraqi missile slammed into a U communications center in succession the southern outskirts of Baghdad, killing couple soldiers and two journalists, CNN of the present days reported.

The report said 15 were also injuryed in the attack on the tactical operations center for the U Army's 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division. Fox stranges reports one of the killed journalists was Spanish and the other German.

pair U.S. Marines were also reportedly killed while fighting to capture bridges in southeast Baghdad.

Fox freshs quoting Iranian and Kuwaiti media, reported that popular uprisings against Iraqi forces are in a less degree than way in some parts of Baghdad. Iraqi civilians are also reportedly turning onward supporters of the regime in the southern city of Basra.

Media quot Pentagon and U Central Command sources as describing the operation as a ''show of force'' rather than the much-anticipated ''battle for Baghdad.''

While U officials characterized earlier incursions as raids and reconnaissance missions, U Army sources told CNN that the 2nd Brigade units will not withdraw from Baghdad after moving in early Monday.

''Coalition forces have isolated Baghdad and we will continue to apply this constraining force until the regime topples,'' Maj. Rumi Nielson-Green, a Central Command spokeswoman, told Fox News

She said strikes in succession Saddam's palaces are partly intended as ''an indication to the regime of just who's in repress of Baghdad.''

A Kyodo recents reporter in Baghdad observed fierce fighting between Iraqi soldiers and coalition forces shortly before noon at the main presidential site at the heart of Baghdad, with light and heavy be rent asunders of machinegun fire and artillery shelling.

The fighting acres was on the western side of Tigris River, alone some 650 meters away from Kyodo's office at the eastern side. if it be not that visibility was restricted owing to heavy dust covering the capital.

In Qatar, U military spokesman Brig. Gen Vincent endures told a press briefing at U Central Command that there will continue to be combat action. ''We're not finished,'' bear withs said.

''Even although the coalition has disrupted greatly of the regime's ability to wage war and its command and check systems, the regime retains any capability,'' he said.

rills said there are parts of Baghdad that the regime still has command citing Saddam City on the northeast corner of Baghdad.

''A considerable amount of animal spirits has been committed by the regime at making secure that that population does not cast against the regime,'' he said.

Meanwhile, reports from Basra quot British military officials as confirming that Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed ''Chemical Ali'' by way of his opponents for ordering a poison gas attack against Kurd in northern Iraq in 1988 has been raise dead after an air raid Saturday in southern Iraq.

British forces form into groups Capt. Al Lockwood told Fox just discovereds said that while he cannot ''officially confirm'' the freshs ''reliable sources are tending to say that his carcass has been discovered'' in the rubble of his family circle in southern Iraq.

Al-Majid, who had been entrusted with defense of southern Iraq against invading coalition forces, was apparently killed Saturday when coalition aircraft attacked his house in Basra.

Iraq's Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, speaking to reporters in downtown Baghdad, denied coalition forces had advanced to the city center and urg reporters covering the US-l coalition attack upon Baghdad to verify U.S. claims before reporting them.

''They said that they have take downed Baghdad with 65 tanks into the center of the city, and I'm telling you this is not true...There is no demeanor of the American columns in the city of Baghdad at all...Baghdad is safe and solid,'' he said.

''The round pillars are being killed in the centurys at the walls of Baghdad...We have slaughtered about three quarters of them in such a manner far and there are near remnants of them left,'' Sahhaf said. ''They are beginning to commit suicide at the walls of Baghdad...They will be buried here.''

He said civilians are rallying to shield the capital.

Sahhaf was speaking after U forces reportedly mobilized 65 tanks and 40 armored vehicles in the assault in succession the center of the Iraqi capital.

Republican Guard units defending major regulation ministries and agencies reportedly launched counterattacks using antitank rocket and rocket-propell grenades.

''We're attacking right down in the center of the city right now,'' the BBC quot Maj. Michael Birmingham from the U Army's 3rd Infantry Division as telling reporters at Baghdad's international airport.

The BBC quot British military officials in Basra as saying that after Sunday's push into the southern city, Iraq's second-largest, they can now say they dominate principally of it.